U.S. authorities say National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wouldn’t face the death penalty—and also promise he wouldn’t be tortured—in a new letter hoping to persuade Russia not to grant him asylum or refugee status.

Attorney General Eric Holder, in a letter to Russian counterpart Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov, said Mr. Snowden’s grounds for seeking asylum in Russia “are entirely without merit.”

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Holder’s letter to Russia on Snowden
The letter goes on to provide written assurances, in the hope that Russia will then deny Mr. Snowden’s appeal for temporary asylum.

“First, the United States would not seek the death penalty for Mr. Snowden should he return to the United States. The charges he faces do not carry that possibility, and the United States would not seek the death penalty even if Mr. Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes,” Mr. Holder wrote.

Obviously, the most important thing at the moment is to find out exactly what Snowden has leaked thus far and keep him from sharing anything else. Getting the Russians to play nice on any issue is always a crapshoot, even after this administration has mostly done whatever the Moscow has wanted.

This is a fairly standard diplomatic move that should have been made sooner. But Holder had to go after George Zimmerman and Texas first. Priorities, you know.

Stephen Kruiser is a professional comedian and writer who has also been a conservative political activist for over two decades. A co-founder of the first Los Angeles Tea Party, Kruiser often speaks to grassroots groups around America and has had the great honor of traveling around the world entertaining U.S. troops.

At least Putin has the cojones to stand up to Obama and Holder, the US journalists can't even ask him a tough question. Putin is more trustworthy that Obama or his henchman, if I were Snowden I'd stay put.

Putin knows that promise will be reversed (remember, "I'll close Gitmo!") at the first hint that Snowden will release info that proves that the IRS used NSA secret data to clobber non-commie voters/leaders and let Bam steal the last election!

I hope that Snowden will unload all he has that can topple Obama, all the secrets, all the lies. It would hopefully keep this administration too busy to deal with him, he would finally be left alone.And people will at last realize which one of them who really is a danger to the US. That would be glorious.

The hubris and stupidity of this administration is ... breath-taking. How do they get away with it? Oh yeah, their lapdog media, national and local. None of this is happening. Like the grand old tree that topples in the forest. If ABC/NBC/CBS/NPR/PBS/CNN/MSNBC/AP/NYT/LAT/WaPo and hundreds of MSM affiliates across the county fail or refuse to report on it ...

At least Putin has the cojones to stand up to Obama and Holder, the US journalists can't even ask him a tough question. Putin is more trustworthy that Obama or his henchman, if I were Snowden I'd stay put.

Some huge part of it has to burn in order to get the vermin out. I want the vermin out, but I'm concerned about which part burns. Russia might be an effective arsonist against the Obama administration, but I don't want America itself to go up in flames.